MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa Title Hopes Alive

When Dani Pedrosa arrived in his home country for the Motorland Aragon Grand Prix this weekend, the Repsol Honda was trailing Jorge Lorenzo by 63 points.

But after placing his RC212V in second on Sunday, he trimmed the Fiat Yamaha rider’s lead to 56 points. Although it was a tough race in Aragon, his performance kept his hopes alive for a first championship in the premier class with five races remaining.

Dani Pedrsoa says: “Our bike here was struggling more with tire wear than some of the others, but anyway, second place is not bad and the Championship is still alive, even though it will be very difficult to catch Lorenzo. I’d like to say thanks to my team who are working really hard, and I want to maintain this momentum because recently we have been fast at every race. I’m looking forward to Honda’s home event at Motegi.”

Pedrosa says he was dealing with grip issues while chasing race-winner Casey Stoner towards the end of the inaugural meeting in Aragon, the third of four races in Spain, including Jerez, Catalunya and the final round in Valencia.

Dani Pedrosa says: “I’m pretty happy with second place today even though of course I wanted to win in front of the Spanish fans,” said Pedrosa, who had won the two previous rounds. “In the first corner I had a slide which lost me a couple of places and then over the next few laps I had to make up some positions before getting behind Casey.”

“By this point he was quite a way in front and our pace was similar at this stage so I tried really hard to catch him and managed to close the gap. But then I started to have some rear-wheel slides and it wasn’t possible for me stay with him so I thought: ‘Okay, this is my place today.'”

Pedrosa’s best finish in the premier-class championship was second in 2007, the year Stoner earned the title. Before graduating to the premier class in 2006, Pedrosa earned three consecutive titles, one in the 125cc class, and two in the former 250cc Class.